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Northwest Florida News 21
Northwest Florida News 21 (also officially known as Spectrum Northwest Florida News 21 as of September 24, 2017) is a cable news television network located in Panama City, Florida. Owned by Charter Communications (through Charter's acquistion of Bright House Networks in 2016, although Bright House, in turn, acquired and absorbed Gulf Time Warner Cable in 2003), it currently serves the Panama City area including Washington, Jackson, Calhoun, Gulf, Bay, and Walton counties. The station, which is exclusive to Charter Spectrum customers, broadcasts news 24 hours a day, seven days a week, with the exception of some special programming, including a weekly political program, Political Connections. The station was created for Gulf Time Warner Cable by Elliott Wiser, who was hired as General Manager by Time Warner Cable in May 1997. At that time Time Warner was building a similar news channel in Orlando-Central Florida News 13. Wiser later created Northwest Florida News 21 en Espanol, Panama City on Demand, and Bright House Sports Network (now Spectrum Sports). History The channel originally launched on September 26, 1997 and gives weather updates every 10 minutes and more frequently during serious weather conditions. It was originally partnered with the Panama City News Herald to help with 24-hour newsgathering operations and the channel was originally operated by Gulf Time Warner Cable, which relinquished cable television franchise rights in the Panama City metropolitan area to Bright House Networks in 2003. On November 1, 2011, Northwest Florida News 21 launched a high definition simulcast feed and began airing its newscasts in the format. As part of the upgrade, the channel installed a new master control system, and unveiled a slightly modified graphics package. The channel unveiled a major branding overhaul on August 27, 2013, the most significant in the channel's history, but still using a logo based on that used by its sister channel in the Tampa Bay region known as Bay News 9 and still using the same news music ("Primetime News" by Non-Stop Music, which has been used by Bay News 9 since its September 1997 launch) and graphics package, the latter of which is designed to fit 16:9 television sets. Its longtime slogan "Panama City's 24 Hour News Service" was also dropped, but the familar slogan "News. Weather. Now." was kept. Programming Northwest Florida News 21 carries weather forecast segments in ten-minute intervals, under the brand "Weather on the Ones" (which is also used by the regional news channels of Bright House (now Charter Spectrum) sister company, Time Warner Cable). During the Atlantic hurricane season, Northwest Florida News 21 provides tropical weather updates twice each hour. It also airs regular traffic reports that immediately follow the weather segments, called "Real Time Traffic", each weekdays between 5:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. Northwest Florida News 21 is also an affiliate of the national and international video news service CNN Newsource. The channel operates on a news "wheel" format, offering blocks of news segments, weather forecasts and feature reports in regular intervals; regular weather segments are broadcast in 10-minute intervals "on the ones," with more frequent updates during severe weather events and wall-to-wall coverage whenever hurricanes or tropical storms affect the channel's service area. Its programming is presented live, although a digital video "jukebox" is used to recycle segments (except for those aired during the channel's rolling early news block Your Morning News) for broadcast at other times and to provide loops of newscasts originally broadcast live in certain timeslots (particularly during the overnight hours). Producers update the wheel throughout the day, inserting new material as stories are filed and updated information becomes available; coverage of breaking news events are also inserted as warranted. In March 2008, Northwest Florida News 21 revamped its news cycle, eliminating the "Beyond the Panhandle" segment at 42 minutes past the hour and replacing it with the Extra segment that aired at 23 minutes past the hour, which was in turn replaced by local news segments. In recent years, traffic segments on weekends have also been eliminated to allow for additional local news coverage. The format returns to the "original" news cycle, with "Extra" segments appearing at 23 and 53 minutes past the hour during the primetime and overnight newscasts. In addition, Northwest Florida News 21 produces the half-hour political discussion program Political Connections (airing Sundays at 11:00 a.m., with an encore at 8:00 p.m.); this version of the program, which is currently hosted by weekday afternoon anchor Jon Steuben debuted in 2005 as part of a partnership between Northwest Florida News 21 and the Panama City News Herald. Upon the channel's launch, Northwest Florida News 21 began producing the nightly half-hour sports highlight program Toyota Sports Connection (it originally aired at 10:30 p.m., before moving to 11:00 p.m. in 2001), which focused mainly on local sports as well as major national sports headlines. It was originally hosted by former Tampa Bay Buccaneer defensive lineman David Logan until his death in 1999, with Rock Riley assuming hosting duties thereafter (the channel has since begun awarding a scholarship to high school athletes named in Logan's honor, The David Logan Scholarship). The program was moved to Bright House Sports Network Panama City (now known as Spectrum Sports Panama City) in 2010, retaining its 11:00 p.m. timeslot (the regional sports network repeats the program throughout the following day after the initial broadcast). Category:Panama City Category:Florida Category:News Channels Category:Television channels and stations established in 1997 Category:Cable channels Category:Charter Communications